Our goal is to
help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical
and historical data and placing it online for the free use of all
researchers.
This website
is available for adoption.
We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online
and are interested in helping this project be as successful as we can
make it. If you are interested in joining our group by hosting one of
the available county websites, view our Volunteer Page for further information about us and then contact Kim.
[A desire to
transcribe data and knowledge of how to make a basic webpage is
required.]
All information you find on this site is submitted by people like you
and me, searching for their family roots. We welcome any information
you may wish to provide for the free research of others. So, dust off
those old scrapbooks you have in your attic, dig out those old
newspapers, or anything else you feel is of interest to this County,
and send them our way. We are looking for obituaries, newspaper
stories, biographies, Birth, Death and Marriage records, as well as
interesting tidbits from years gone past - the items YOU used to put
together your family trees. If you have information that you'd like to
share with us on the history of this county and its people, please send it to us and we'll make sure it gets posted online.
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The County is 587 square miles
in area, originally vegetated with oak prairie savannas. Dakota County
lies within the confluence of three of the four major rivers draining
from the State of Minnesota -- the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers
along the northern border and the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers on
the eastern border. The County's development and history have been
greatly influenced by its proximity to these rivers.
Previous to European settlement, Dakota County was part of an expansive
territory of the Dakota tribe of American Indians. In 1689, Nicholas
Perrot, a fur trader, proclaimed possession of Dakota, Ojibwe
(Chippewa), and other American Indian lands for the nation of France,
without the consent of the tribes. Lands west of the Mississippi River
were annexed from France to the United States in 1805 through the
Louisiana Purchase.
In 1849, the Minnesota Territory legislature created nine original
counties, including Dakota. The County's original boundary extended
only as far south as Hastings, but extended west several hundred miles
to the Missouri River. The County seat was first established in Kaposia
in 1853, was moved to Mendota in 1854, and moved again to Hastings in
1857, where it currently resides. Mendota, directly across the river
from Fort Snelling, became the first European settlement in Minnesota.
As American Indians were systematically removed from their lands and
rebellions moved further to the west, large numbers of European
settlers began arriving to the region in the mid-1850s. With increased
population, Minnesota became a state in May 1858, nine years after the
inception of Dakota County.
Source: Dakota
County Government.
Submitted by John Bauer
Online Data
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BIRTHS
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OBITS
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MARRIAGES
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CEMETERIES
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CENSUS
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BIOGRAPHIES
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DEATHS
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CHURCHES
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NEWS
&
GOSSIP
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HISTORY
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MILITARY
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Website
updates:
May 2009: BERRY suicide
Nov 2008: County History; Township/City History; Civil War Enlistees,
1868 Hastings Business directory; WW II Casualties; Bio for CROWLEY |
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